The Ultimate Blogger’s Guide to Stock Photos

As a blogger, there are a few tools you need. One of those is great pictures. And if you are still using a point-and-shoot camera, and can’t for the life of you figure out the rule of thirds, chances are your pictures aren’t very good, and all those pins on Pinterest are falling flat. And even if you have an artistic eye and a great camera you (mostly) know how to use, it doesn’t mean you can still take pictures that will be *just right* for that new killer blog post you wrote.

This seems especially true for me, a Parenting/Family/Lifestyle blogger. Sometimes, I just don’t have a great image of my own to use for “getting kids to take their medicine when they don’t want to.” Because, the reality is, my kids aren’t actors, and neither am I. And, my house doesn’t always have great backgrounds (aka toys everywhere). Nor do we wear the cutest, matching, non-distracting, clothes. The time involved in *trying* to get that Pinterest-perfect picture for a parenting post just seems like a very bad time investment. It is then that I am so thankful for stock photography.

Stock photos are pretty much essential for just about any blog or website. Pictures break up long posts, add to the story, illustrate a point, and are a must for getting shared on Pinterest and other visual websites. You need great pictures! Plain as that. The problem is, where do you find those amazing pictures, and how do you not spend a fortune on them, because, as we all know, no one wants to spend money, especially on a new blog which has a very low start-up costs. Plus lots of bloggers/entrepreneurs have a DIY mentality and are trying hard to make money, not spend it.

Don’t forget to ‘Pin’ this to your favorite blogging board! You will want this list later!

So, I have put together an amazing list of 50+ websites where you can get free stock photos for blogs, as well as where you can get cheap stock photos for just $1. I have to include some paid options, because, honestly, free isn’t always the best when it comes to stock photos and getting exactly what you need.

But, let me put this out there before I begin the list. I am also organizing this according to restrictions on how and when you can use these stock images. Because, here’s the thing: someone took these pictures, and they have the rights to them unless otherwise specified. You must always, always, always, read the fine print and understand if what you want to do with it (put it on your website vs. on a billboard), do to it (add text, change coloring, crop it), or whatever is allowed by the terms of use.

Sometimes you need to put a little link in the post about where you got the image and who took it, especially from free sites. Usually when you pay for an image you are waiving that obligation. But, just because you pay, it doesn’t always mean you can do *anything* with the image (i.e. sell it yourself). And then there is commercial vs. non-commercial use. I’m not 100% sure what constitutes a “commercial” use. A blog post might be considered commercial use if you make money from your blog. But, it also might not, as it could just refer to using it on billboards, pamphlets, flyers, presentations, or business cards. Again, it is up to you to read the fine print and use it according to the law. And, some websites that offer free stock photos may not have the model releases for the people pictures, so you have to use your best judgment. So, just check the terms every time you grab an image to use on your site.

Traditional Paid Stock Photo Sites (that offer freebies!)

I feel like this is the big one, the website for high-quality, amazing stock photos. It’s the company that a lot of other, smaller, stock photo sites use as a sponsor/ad/affiliate (sometimes setting up their site in such a way to trick you into clicking over to ShutterStock’s website). They do have great images, but they are very expensive for your average start-up blogger. You can pay as you go and get two images for $29 or $49 for five images. Or you can subscribe to a monthly payment plan of $199-$249/month but download 25 images a day, every day, or about 750 stock photos a month. In a year, you could technically download 9,125 images for $2388. Not sure why you’d need so much, and you’d still be spending quite a bit of money. However, I just noticed that they apparently offer a free photo every day as long as you have an account set up. That’s how I got the above photo. Perhaps worth checking each day to see if they have a great image you can save for future use.

For $2 you can purchase a small JPG file from PhotoSpin.com, but you will need to pay more to get a larger image. Or you can subscribe to a yearly plan, paying $429/year for 500 downloads a month and then the photos would be in the larger format. Honestly, 6000 stock photos a year for only $429 is a great deal, but I have to wonder, who is going to download that many? You can download the free image above on their site, though, as a way to try before you buy.

If you create an account, you can have access to some free stock photo downloads from their site every week, and where I got the above image. Otherwise, you are looking at buying credits (and some photos cost more than one credit) at $12 for one credit, saving the more credits you buy at once. The great thing is that all sizes are the same amount of credits, though. They also have a subscription plan for as low as $166.58/month for 750 images/month, but this is only for everyday images, and not their premium ones (the ones that cost more than one credit generally). Not too bad and the images are pretty great.

BigStock is also another site that offers a free image of the week to those who sign up for an account/email. They do though also offer an Unlimited Free Trial! You can get one free image per month, every month, with no commitment, as long as you are a new user. Might be smart to sign up and grab a free one every month! Their plans are more affordable, at just $79/month, for only five images downloaded a day or just $0.53 per image. That’s a very good deal, and much more reasonable for a smaller blogger. You could stock up on 150 stock images for a month, and be set for a while, which seems more likely of what your stock photo needs would be.

Every week Fotolia offers three free images. They also offer a new customer discount (20% off your first purchase/subscription period) of their plans. You can grab a daily subscription, getting 750 images (25 per day) for $249 for one month ($0.33/image). Or a monthly pack where you can get 5 XXL images or 10 M images (which is likely all you need for a blog) for $20 a month, or $2 an image. If you want more photos/month, the cost per image goes down with other packages.

Did you pin this post yet? 🙂

$1 Stock Photo Websites

I (Katelyn Fagan) receive commissions for purchases made through the link(s) in this post. These are disclosed by this text {affiliate}. For full disclosure visit here.

I just started using Dollar Photo Club, in part because I was sick of searching through several different free stock photo websites (which I will be listing shortly) looking for exactly the right picture. I figured it was also time to start investing some money back into my blog and reworking some old images and posts in the hopes of seeing more traffic. I have been pretty pleased so far. I spent $10 for ten huge images for the month. The selection is huge and is a great option for improving your blog’s images. The above picture is a stock photo I bought from them and put into a recent post about ways to be a fun, playful parent.

Canva is a great editing and design program (like PicMonkey, but better in some ways), complete with free tutorials and photo guides and more. You can put your photos or other stock photos into their program, and design some amazing Pinterest images, infographics, memes, quotes, signs, and more. One of the extra features is that you can also purchase, for $1, a stock image or graphic to use in your product. I’ve done this twice and was pretty happy with it. The only downside to doing this is that you don’t actually download the image to your computer: it remains on Canva (who saves all your designs, which can make for easy changes later). You only have 24 hours to edit your photo/graphic until you have to pay again to save the completed file to your computer. I have once used the same image for two different blog posts to optimize the purchase. I don’t know if it’s the best solution to needing a stock photo, but it sure it easy! You can also pay $10 for 11 images if you really wanted to. They have a pretty good selection of high-quality images. The picture above is a $1 image from Canva and designed in their editing program that I used for a blog post a while ago.

FREE STOCK PHOTOS:

No Attribution Required/Royalty Free

A lot of the following websites curate stock photos from images they find online from Creative Commons and sites like Flickr. They simply choose the best images that have no restrictions or copyright attached to them. It can save you a lot of time looking through the thousands of images yourself looking for the very best.

You have permission to use these completely free, high-resolution, extra-large images however you want. They upload ten new photos every ten days. They are gorgeous photos. The subject matter various, but they include lots of beautiful scenery, city skylines, silhouetted people, roads, tools, technology, cities, seas, buildings, and more. I suggest scrolling through and saving your favorites to your computer so you won’t have to find them again, as there is no search function, just a continuous scroll (so also no page jumping to help you find “that” photo again). I have used images from UnSplash multiple times and loved it!

This website is set up almost exactly like UnSplash, featuring seven new snaps/photos each week that are high res and free to use, however. The images are very much like UnSplash, as well, with a great mix of images that are all pretty fantastic.

This site is just like UnSplash but gives you the option of downloading a zip file with that week’s seven hi-res images (however, they are no longer updating). The photos found here are very pretty. They include landscape images, animals, buildings, machines, lights, cameras, and more. Thankfully they have page numbers to help you navigate through the images easier too.

Similar to the previous two websites, Gratisography, however, specializes in things that are a bit, shall we say, unique. Some are humorous, some edgy, but all interesting and great royalty and copyright free high-resolution images.

If you are tech blogger, you should check out these free images. They include people, laptops, office space, phones, notebooks, and all things technology-related. They don’t currently have a huge selection of free images, but if this is your niche, I’d download these and use them for future posts.

Another great site that puts up new photos each week that are hi-res with no copyright restrictions. They do have the option in their gallery tab to break the photos down into categories, which are Beach, Black and White, City, Construction, Desk, Food, Industrial, Nature, Object, Sea, and Textures. They also page view if you just want to scroll through.

Here you find over 290,000 free photos, vectors, and art illustrations. There are some very nice photos (stunning as they say), most of which even allow for commercial use. The images are hand-picked by their curating team. You can browse by category or by using the search feature. Just know that when using the search box, the results will show sponsored images from Shutterstock on the first row. I recently grabbed this photo for a post of mine on Ways to be Fun, Playful Mom.

This is one of those tricky stock photo sites that wants you to click on their banners’ search box instead of their site’s actual search bar. The search bar you want to use is at the top right, in the dark gray portion of the site. They don’t have a very large selection, mostly of objects.

I have used this website several times for various stock images over the years (or at least while searching). They have a fairly good selection, though not the most amazing images. Some are downright bad. But, you could luck out.

To use their site you have to register for a free account. Just be aware then when you are searching, the first row of pictures are images from ShutterStock (listed above as a high cost paid option), so ignore that row if you want to download FREE images from their site. The selection here also isn’t huge, but they do offer a search feature. Some of the images aren’t great, but there are some gems on there! I personally really like this photographer’s images of people/objects.

Free Photos Bank

Here you find a limited number of free stock photos in the categories Abstract, Architecture, Computers/Tech, Food, Nature, Objects, Transportation, and Life. The hard thing to me about browsing on their site is that all the picture previews are tiny and I don’t even know what they are unless I click on them. But, there are some great photos in here.

At ImageBase.net you will find free stock images in the categories: People, Objects, Nature, PowerPoint Slides, City, and Holy Land. The images are very nice, though maybe not amazing. Better than some of the other free sites like it.

The photos here are broken up into the following categories: Activities, Animals, Cities, Food, Landscapes, Objects, People, Plants, Transportation, and Bonus. It is a small collection of free images, and pictures aren’t the greatest. More available on their main site Turbophoto, but you can only use the small/medium for free, but without attribution (otherwise $5).

On FreeImages.com you will find very nice images and a pretty wide selection. However, be aware that the first row of images are sponsored images from iStockPhoto.com (a paid website I mentioned above). So don’t click on them if you want the free images. I do wish they had a category feature, though.

They boast 51,000 stock images that are free for Non-Commerical/Personal use. And again, be aware that when you do a search, the first two rows, and the last two rows, are sponsored images from ShutterStock that will cost money. The free images will be in the middle. Personally, I don’t find they have a huge collection of images that I would want, but they might for you. The images aren’t super amazing, but there are some real gems in there!

You need to register to download the images, but then they are free even for commercial use and with no attribution required. Plus, they even have the model/talent release for the photos with people (if you look at the fine print on some websites you’ll notice that they don’t have these releases). The pictures are pretty high quality, although not as great as ones where you pay, but with a little searching you may just find what you want. A good range of categories too.

These images are free to use for personal and commercial use. They have a lot of vectors and graphics, but also some other high-quality scenes and people photos as well. Not an enormous selection, though. You are required to register.

This site looks different when you first come to it. There aren’t any pictures. You have to click on one of the several categories and then browse through the images. They are pretty quality images and are free to download and use.

This site is a bit different in that all of the free stock photos are images that were captured with smartphones. They are Hi-Res Mobile photos. The top search bar is an ad, so don’t use it to try to search. You just have to scroll down and letting new images load. The images are mostly cityscapes, landscapes, objects, statues, and food. Right now it’s a very small collection, but you might find something you like.

This is a unique stock photo website in that they offer old, vintage, and historical images that are free to download. If you write about history, vintage-themes, or just like using these types of images, I would scroll through them! Many are in black and white or sepia tones. All sorts of different things pictured too, from immigrants to buildings, to posters, to landing on the moon.

Tack-O-Rama

This stock photo website is also unique because they offer retro resources for designers. It’s vintage clipart, fonts, and stock photography. However, they aren’t sure of the copyright of some of the old images, but most are in public domain. The images are great for those who want images that are vintage or have a classic feel.

FREE STOCK PHOTOS:

Attribution Required

Some websites offer free stock photos for blogs and websites, but they require that you give an attribution to their site as well as the owner of the photograph. Be sure to read the fine print for what exactly they are asking you for. Also, some of these sites only offer the free images in the smallest sizes, and then charge more if you want a larger version.

Foter is pretty awesome. You can search 228,860,217 (as of this writing) free stock photos. They have some awesome, beautiful pictures in a variety of sizes, which can be used for non-commercial uses (always check the fine print, as some can’t be modified). It’s nice that you can search by license type and even sort them by relevance, recency, interestingness, and with a safe or moderate search. Just remember to attribute on your post!

They have a very large collection of images. I have used their free images many times on my blog as they have a very large collection of people stock photos. However, the free images are all small and require attribution. I have been able to stretch the images sometimes to make them “pin-worthy”, but you have to be careful because if you do blow them up you will see the pixels and they will start to get blurry. So, I guess it just depends on what you are using them for. If you don’t want to have an attribution or get a larger size, you can, but you’ll pay $3.00+ for one image.

This is a pretty great site with some quality stock photos. They claim to have the largest web collection of free images with more than 1 million royalty-free stock photos. You just need to attribute! Oh, and be weary of the sponsored images from Dreamstime that appear at the top and the bottom of your searches.

They have some great photos and are organized, but require attribution. Some even say you can’t make derivative works of them, nor use them for commercial purposes. Be sure to read the fine print and know which license the picture has. Thankfully you can search by license type (so click “commercial.”) However, they don’t really have a large variety of images and are very limited in the number of photos available.

Work with other sites, so not everything is free or available on their site. Some you need to log-in to download. And many require attribution. However, full disclosure: that they do have inappropriate pictures (i.e. naked women) in their search results. The pictures here are also not the best quality. You have to search to find images that good compositions and lighting.

Pixel Perfect Digital

A great site for backgrounds and textures, as well as close up shots and objects, there are some cool free stock photos here. I would totally browse through a few of their galleries. They do ask that you credit their site for the original creation.

With a subtitle of free photos for bloggers and creatives, this is a good resource for stock photos. The images come from Creative Commons on Flickr. When you do a search, the top two rows are sponsored images, so don’t click those unless you want to pay for the image. You can also choose the license type on the sidebar – commercial or non-commercial. However, you will have to do some searching for high-quality, awesome photos. There are some good ones, but it will take some digging. And you’ll have to copy and paste the HTML for attribution purposes.

Another stock photo site that shares Creative Commons photos, but watch their terms; it looks like some want to charge $30 for commercial use. Also, use the orange search bar in the middle of the page, and not the gray “depositphotos” search in the top right. And in search results, the sponsored images will be at at the bottom. They have limited categories (which do not include people), and the images are only okay. You will have to poke around more and see what they have and if your niche fits their photos.

GeekPhilospher

They do not have a lot of stock photos, but they are pretty good (though not amazing). They include celebrity images in web resolution quality. Categories are Animals, Events, Food/Drink, Holidays, Insects, Medical/Dental, Music/Bands, Nature, Objects, People, Places/Buildings, Sports, and Transportation.

Resources for this post (and where you can find even more free stock photo sites):

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About Katelyn Fagan

Katelyn Fagan is a positive mom to three young kids, including twin preschoolers. She is painfully aware of her own flaws, and writes to help herself, and others going through similar shortcomings, to become better and more balanced. On her blog, What’s Up Faganss?, you will find parenting advice, penny-pinching tips, cleaning hacks, and general help managing marriage, life and faith. She is an author and has been featured and syndicated on Blogher.com and recently FamilyShare.com.